Senior Citizen Volunteers Finding Ways To Help Others

June 21, 1984|The Morning Call

It's nice to be needed - and a growing number of senior citizens in Schuylkill County wants others to know.

Members of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), they have been busy preparing 5,000 newsletters to be mailed to area senior citizens, urging them to share their time and talents by becoming RSVP volunteers.

New to Schuylkill County and the Lehigh Valley area, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program provides opportunities for volunteer service through nonprofit private and public community organizations. Volunteers tell the RSVP staff their interests and hobbies and how many hours they want to volunteer, and RSVP matches them with an organization in need of assistance in that area.

The idea began in the 1960s with a private group of Long Island senior citizens opposed to mandatory retirement. Hoping to make retirement a more meaningful experience, they pooled their skills and interests to form an enthusiastic core of volunteers.

As more senior citizens became involved, news of the program's success spread to Washington, D.C., until Congress voted to supply ACTION funding for RSVP programs throughout the country.

Cynthia Pellock became Schuylkill County RSVP director in September, 1983, working with the area Agency on Aging.

To date, she has signed up 65 county volunteers, matching their interests to a wide variety of positions. Fifteen are working part-time in health institutions, visiting the sick, organizing group therapy activities and helping with office work. At least 30 devote their time to preparing bulk mailings.

Miss Pellock told of one retired man familiar with YMCA exercise programs who now leads his own program of simple exercises at a nearby nursing home.

Another woman is being trained to answer calls to the Task Force on Abused Women on the county Hot Line, she said.

Realizing many senior citizens no longer drive or own a car, RSVP will provide transportation or make jobs as close to a volunteer's home as possible. For those who drive, accident and liability insurance and a mileage allotment of 20 cents per mile have been established.